The City Finds You

South Bend on Purpose is a podcast about place, belonging, and South Bend hosted by Jacob Titus, Dustin Mix, and John Garry.

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This week on South Bend on Purpose, and every week in between interviews, we are trying something new. Our friend John Garry is joining the show to share "prose for the city" with us—shorter episodes that will contain a poetry reading and guided reflections.

We asked John to share why we're trying this new kind of episode:

Poetry is a conversation with your community. I love poetry. It is, for me, a way that I have seen new parts of our city and seen new parts of the story. And it lends itself well to thoughtful practice. So, this is our chance to have a conversation and to create some open and structured space to think about certain aspects of our city that maybe we hadn't appreciated and the way we fit into that story.

LOST

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

-David Wagoner (1971)